Automatic chain cutting machine

ABSTRACT

An automatic chain cutting machine which divides a chain made in a longer length into chains having a required number of links. The machine includes a chain guiding means which guides a longlength chain to the working portion of the press, a means for feeding the chain and a pressing machine which pushes out a connecting pin from the chain. The chain feeding means incorporates a sprocket for feeding a chain and a means that gives a signal at each time a certain even number of teeth on said sprocket rotatively move, which are designed in such a mechanism as to stop the sprocket when the number of signals thus given reaches the predetermined one, thereby holding the portion of the chain at which it should be separated at a predetermined working position so that the press punch may push out the connecting pin from the portion to be separated in order to thus enable an automatic production of a chain with a required number of links.

United States Patent [191 Onishi [451 Sept. 25, 1973 AUTOMATIC CHAIN CUTTING MACHINE Primary Examiner-Richard J. Herbst Assistant Examiner-Gene P. Crosb 751 t:K Ohl-l h,Ok-h, Y nven or zgfil j g 1 $8 a S l Attorney-Woodhams, Blanchard & Flynn 73 A 1 T k' ssignee suba imoto Chain Co Ltd ABSTRACT Osaka-shi, Japan An automatic chain cutting machine which divides a [22] Flled: June 1971 chain made in a longer length into chains having a re- [21] Appl. No.: 157,239 quired number of links. The machine includes a chain guiding means which guides a long-length chain to the [30] Foreign Application Priority Dam working portion of the press, a means for feeding the chain and a pressing machine Wl'llCh pushes out a con- July 3, l970 Japan.... 45/57799 necting f the Chain. The chain d g means incorporates a sprocket for feeding a chain and a [52] US. Cl. 59/11 means that gives a Signal at each time a certain even [5 Illlt. number of teeth on Said Sprocket rotatively move, Field Search l, 7, 5 are d g in h a mechanism as to p the sprocket when the number of signals thus given reaches [56] References C'ted the predetermined one, thereby holding the portion of UNI D STATES PATENTS the chain at which it should be separated at a predeter- 3,377,797 4/1968 Pinchev 59/7 mined working position so that the press punch may 2,700,870 2/1955 Green 59/7 push out the connecting pin from the portion to be sep- 3,003,306 0/1961 Quisenberry 59/7 arated in order to thus enable an automatic production 3,028,723 4/1962 Kaplan 59/7 of a chain with a required number f links 3.640,l64 2/1972 Crafford 59/ll 3 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures i ll 42 40 n lllr' 8089 L54 1 L 7 8 "P46 W M 3111 47 43 w 9|]' 4 6 IO 23 '\a & CI

PATENTEU 3.760.586

SHEET 1 (IF 6 FIG. I

INVENTOR. KAUPL/ O/V/SH/ wi MW PATENTEnsEPzslen SHEET-301 6 AUTOMATIC CHAIN CUTTING MACHINE FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an automatic chain cutting machine whereby a chain made in a longer length is divided into chains having a required number of links.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Generally a chain is made into a longer length and then is divided into chains of required length or having a required number of links each of which is made into a circular form by connecting its both ends by an outer link. Conventionally, as this dividing process has been done manually, there has been a drawback that the process requires too many man-hours to make itself suitable for mass production.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of this invention is to provide an automatic chain cutting machine which automatically divides a long-length chain into chains each of which having a required number of links. Another object of the invention is to provide'an automatic chain cutting machine which can automatically divide a chain in the same manner as described above into chains of varying lengths by replacing some of its components. And a further object of the invention is to provide an automatic chain cutting machine which, in making said division, disengages a chain feeding means from its driving means to stop it to fix a portion of the chain at which it should be separated at a predetermined position and, then, removes a connecting pin of the-chain by means of a press.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front view of the machine.

FIG. 2 is a side view on its right side.

FIG. 3 is a plan on the line III-- III of FIG. 1 with the press frame omitted therefrom.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a cross section on the line lV-IV of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a cross section on the line V--V of FIG. 3 and a cross section of a portion of the punch supporter.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing a cross section on the line VIVI of FIG. 3.

FIGS. 7a and 7b are diagrams of the electric circuit for operating this cutter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring now to the appended drawings, there is illustrated in FIG. 1 a C-shaped crank press 1 which is driven through a belt by an electric motor 2. On a bolster 3 is mounted a supporting plate 4 which is fitted with a forked supporting piece 5 on its right upper surface and an air cylinder 6 for the clutch on its lower side at the right end, with said forked supportingpiece 5 being connected by a pin to the central part of a link 7 in such a manner as to serve as a fulcrum, with the left end of said link, in turn, being connected by a pin to a clutch operation rod 8 and its right end to a forked piece 9 which is fixed to the upper end of a piston rod 10 in the air cylinder 6 which extends upwards piercing through a hole perforated in the supporting plate 4. The link 7 in FIG. 1 is in a position where the press 1 is not moving, and if the piston rod 10 is elevated by feeding the compressed air into the air cylinder 6 and then immediately lowered a ram 12 will be for one time lowered and then brought back to the elevated position again where it stops by means of the engagement of a clutch 11.

At the lower end of the ram 12 is fixed a punch holder 13 as shown in FIG. 5, while a punch holding piece 15 is attached to said holder by a pair of reamer bolts 14 and a punch pressing piece 16 is attached in front of said holding piece by a pair of bolts 17. On the opposite faces of the punch holding piece 15 and the punch pressing piece 16 are formed a pair of circular vertical grooves. 18 facing each other. By fastening the bolts 17, a pair of punches 19 of the same shape are held between the vertical grooves 18 perpendicular to the bolster 3. Said pair of punches 19, as described in the latter part, are for use in dividing a chain by pushing a connecting pin 104 out of a chain 100. Plural kinds of the punch holding piece 15, punch pressing piece 16 and punch 19 are prepared so that the size of the punch 19 and the intervals at which it is installed may be altered in accordance with the kind and size of the chain. This enables the machine to divide plural kinds (eight kinds in the example cited here) of chains by making certain combinations among them.

An intermediate plate 22 is fixed to a support 21 which is vertically mounted on a press bed 20, and an extended portion of a supporting plate 4 is fixed on to a support 23 which is mounted on said intermediate plate. On said supporting plate 4 is mounted a chain guiding means 24 which accurately guides the chain, which is fed from the left (FIG. 1) for dividing, to the working portion of the press. This chain guiding means 24, which is combined with a jig 50 of the press and prepared in several types for different kinds of chains. is accurately placed in a predetermined position by a knock pin 25 planted on the supporting plate 4 and fixed thereto by a bolt 34 in a replaceablemanner.

Said chain guiding means 24 includes the mounts 26 and 27 which are respectively fitted to the supporting plate 4 at the working portion of the press 1 and at the end where the chain is fed in, a rod-like guide member 28 which connects said mounts by the bolts 35 and the guide members 29 and 30 which are fixed by the bolts 36 to said mounts 26 and 27 opposite to said member 28. Said members 29 and 30 and another guide member 28 form the paralleled, similarly shaped, straight guide grooves 31 and 32, whose width corresponds in the upper part to the diameter of a chain roller 101 which is guided thereby and is expanded in the lower so as to accomodate the links 102 and 103. The left end of the guide member 29 is tapered at an angle of about 45 degrees and, in addition, its tip is rounded to allow the smooth admission of the chain roller 101. Between the guide members 29 and 30, a guide plate 33 whose sides come into contact with the inner link 102 of the chain is fixed by the bolts 37. So the chain .guiding means 24 supports and guides, at both ends, both sides of the chain roller 101 and both lower parts of the inner link 102 by the guide grooves 31 and 32, while, in the intermediate part, it supports and guides the one side of the chain roller 101 as well as the lower part on one side and the side part on the other of the inner link 102.

To the left end of the guide groove 32 is connected the right end of a chain guide plate 40 by a bolt 41. The chain guide plate 40 has vertical walls 42 which gradually expand in space from the right to the left end and a bottom plate 43 whose left end is curved and extended downwards and is connected by bolt 47 to the tip of a guide plate receiver 45 fixed to a reel stand 44. Around a chain reel 46 provided, rotatably, on top of said reel stand 44 is wound a long-length chain which is taken in by the undermentioned feeding means through the chain guide plate 40 into the guide groove 32 and then fed to the jig 50 of the press through the guide groove 31.

Next, on the right side, to the chain guiding means 24 is provided the press jig 50 which comprises, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, a collector slide table 51 mounted on the mount 26, on top of which a guide groove 52 is formed by a roller guide 53 and a collector cover 54 to guide the chain in succession to the guide groove 31. The interior sides of the roller guide 53 come into contact with a chain roller 101, its upper side with the lower side of the chain inner link 102 and the sides of the collector cover 54 with the sides of the chain inner link 102, thereby guiding the chain as is done in the above-mentioned intermediate part of the guiding means 24. On top of the roller guide 53 is fixed a punch guide plate 55 by a bolt 48 and a knock pin 49, which horizontally projects over the connecting pin 104 of the chain to support a pair of punch guide bushes 56. At the upper right portion of the mount 26 are fixed the guide blocks 57 and 58 to guide a divided chain to the chain discharging table 59.

The press jig 50 holds the chain at a predetermined position while the press punch 19 is pushing out the chain connecting pin 104 and it has the following structure. That is, on top of the center of the collector slide 51, a collector 60 which is capable of sliding perpendicular to the chain guide groove 52 is held by the collector block 61 which guides both sides of said collector 60 and the collector cover 54 placed thereon. The tip of the collector 60 has a pointed part comprising the vertical slopes having an angle, which is formed by equal sides, of 60 or 90 according to the kind of the chain. When said part is inserted into the adjacent rollers, said slopes press'the roller guide 53 against the chain roller 101, while the upper side of said pointed part comes into contact with the lower side of the chain inner link 102 to accurately hold the chain in a predetermined position while the connecting pin 104 is being pushed out as well as to hold the chain inner link 102 against the pressing force of the punch 19.

The rear end of the collector vertically protrudes downwards and engages with the groove on the connecting fixture 64 attached to the piston rod 63 in the air cylinder 62. The collector 60 is driven forward and backward by the air cylinder 62 and it can be easily engaged with and disengaged from the connecting fixture 64 when the chain guiding means is replaced.

At the left of the chain guiding means 24, a groove is formed in the guide member 28 at right angles with the guide groove 32, and a detecting member 66 is held slidably in said groove by a cover 65. Since said detecting means is always pressed by a spring 67 toward the guide groove 32, the detecting member 66 is withdrawn while the chain remains in the guide groove 32. But when the chain wound round the chain reel 46 has been all fed in and the last end of the chain has passed in front of the detecting member 66, the detecting member 66 is protruded by the spring 67 into the guide groove 32 and a limit switch LS1 provided at the back of the detecting member 66 is actuated to detect that all the chain has been fed out of the guide groove 32.

To cause the chain to move along the chain guiding means, a chain feeding means 68 is attached to the supporting plate 4 and is driven via a reduction gear 70 and a torque limiter coupling 71 by the electric motor 69 placed on the intermediate plate 22. The torque limiting coupling 71 includes a dish-shaped spring 71A disposed in engagement with a friction plate 718, the latter being disposed in driving engagement with a shaft 74. The torque limiting coupling 71, when the driving torque therethrough exceeds a certain limit, results in slip occurring between the spring 71A and the plate 718, in which condition the two members are slidably engaged with one another. This chain feeding means 68 fix a bearing 72 whose collar is bolted to the supporting plate 4, the shaft 74 which is supported thereby with a bush 73 and whose lower end is keyed to the upper half portion of the torque limiter coupling 71, an indexing plate 78 which is keyed to the upper portion of the collar 75 formed on said shaft and a chain feeding sprocket which is fitted to said indexing plate by a bolt 77 which passes through a circular hole made in the sprocket 80 to the shaft 74 by a washer 76 and a bolt 79. A thrust washer 81 inserted below the collar 75 supports the load of the rotating part on the bearing 72. Some of the teeth of the sprocket 80 engage with a chain roller 101 under the guide plate 33 of the chain guiding means 24 to cause the chain 100 to move. The indexing plate 78 has half as many teeth 82 as the sprocket 80 and the front part of each of said teeth is radially normal with respect to the direction of rotation. Assembly made up of the indexing plate 78 and the sprocket 80 will be prepared in plural number of types so that they may be used replaceably according to the type of chain to be produced by installing and removing the bolt 79.

On the supporting plate 4, a guiding member 83 is fixed near the outer circumference of the indexing plate 78, and a guiding groove provided thereon and a cover 84 mounted thereon guide and hold a indexing plate stop pawl 85 slidably, and when the tip of said pawl projects out one side thereof comes into engagement with said front part of the tooth 82 and thereby stops the rotation of the indexing plate 78. The rear end of said pawl is connected by a pin 86 to a forked piece 87 which is screwed to the piston rod 90 in the air cylinder 89 which is fixed to the supporting plate 4 with a bracket 88 therebetween. The pin 86 extends upwards to engage with the actuator of the limit switch LS2 which is attached to the cover 84 and actuates the limit switch LS2 when the indexing plate stop pawl 85 is moved forward and backward as described in the latter part.

In the proximity of the stop pawl 85, an access switch 91, which detects the access of the teeth 82 of the indexing plate 78, is fixed on an angle plate 93 by means of a bracket 92. The angle plate 93 can rotate in close contact with the outer circumference of the collar of the bearing 72 at one end and has a slot 94 at the other, and it is fixed by a bolt 95 to the supporting plate 4 in a suitable undermentioned relative position with respect to the teeth 82 of the dividing plate and the access switch 91.

Chain is engaged with the sprocket 80 while passing through the guiding means 24. Meanwhile, since the chain is made up of semi-built-up assemblies prepared by connecting a pair of rollers 101 to an inner link 102 which are connected together by means of an outer link 103 and a connecting pin 104 whose tip is slightly calked, when a pair of connecting pins 104 passed through the same outer link 103 is forcibly pushed out from the side on which it is calked the connecting pin will come off along with the outer link on the opposite side thereby cutting the chain. Since the number of the outer links is half as many as that of the rollers 101, the chain is engaged with the sprocket 80 so that the outer link 103 will come to just below the punch 19 every time two teeth of the sprocket 80 advance, or at every time one tooth of the indexing plate 78 passes in front of the access switch 91. For this purpose, a matching mark is put on a predetermined tooth of the sprocket 80, the roller 101 at the tip of the chain, which has passed through the guiding groove 32, is engaged with the sprocket 80 by adjusting it to said mark, the electric motor is jogged to guide said tip roller through the guiding groove 31 to the press jig portion 50, the collector 60 is caused to advance by operating the push button and between the two rollers connected by the same outer link 103 to press the chain against the roller guide 53, the pilot pin 96 is inserted into a hole made in the collector 60 through a slot 97 in the collector cover 54 and is maintained at where it should be by a set screw 98 provided on the collector cover 54, and then the stroke of the piston rod 63 is adjusted by adjusting the extent to which the piston rod 63 and the connecting fixture 64 are screwed together. Then, by pulling out the pilot pin 96 .and withdrawing the collector 60, it becomes thereafter possible to divide the chain fed by the rotation of the sprocket 80 into the chains each of which having a required number oflinks as described later.

When the sprocket 80 feeds the chain engaged therewith as described above, the access switch 91 discharges one pulse for every two teeth of the sprocket 80, so the number of pulses represents one half of the number of the rollers of the chain thus fed. Therefore, if a counter whichcounts the number of pulses twice that of the pulses described above is provided and a series of even numbers such as 6, 8, and so on are selected as its preset numbers, these numbers will represent the number of rollers in the chain produced. When the counter is preset as described above and said twofold pulses reach the preset number, the counter will discharge an output pulse thereby opening the magnet valve of the air cylinder 89 to cause the indexing plate stop pawl 85 to move forward so that it may engage with the tooth 82 of the indexing plate 78 to stop the indexing plate and, therefore, the sprocket 80, while the limit switch LS2 is actuated to open the magnet valve of the air cylinder 62 and cause the collector 60 to move forward until its tip is pressed between the two rollers connected by the same outer link to maintain said rollers accurately at the predetermined position.

By the above-mentioned operation the circuit of the electric motor 69 will be opened too, but the inertial rotation which remains until it comes to stop is not transmitted to the indexing plate 78 since slip will occur between spring 71a and plate 71b of the torque limiter coupling 71. In case the chain is fixed by the advancement of the collector 60 after the indexing plate 78 has stopped, the angular connecting relation between the indexing plate 78 and the sprocket 80 should be adjusted by the bolt 77 so that the chain may take a position suitable for said fixation. By the action of the limit switch LS2 a timer is actuated and a signal is discharged 1.5 to 2.0 seconds afterwards, which operates the air cylinder 6 and sets the clutch to lower the ram once. Then the punch 19 falls through the guide bush 56 and pushes out the two connecting pins 104 at both ends of the outer link 103 concurrently. The connecting pins can be pushed out with ease by the force of the punch 19 since their upper side is only partly calked so that they may not get out of the roller. When the ram 12 goes up again, the limit switch LS4 is actuated to cause the air cylinder 89 to withdraw the indexing plate stop pawl 85, which, in turn, actuates the limit switch LS2 to cause the air cylinder 62 to withdrawthe collector 60 to release the chain. If the required number of chains have not been produced when the limit switch LS4 is actuated, the electric motor 69 will start again to repeat all the above-described procedures. When the predetermined number of chains have been produced, the counter will discharge a pulse to stop the electric motor 69.

In addition to the operation of the chain cutting machine, we shall describe about the operation circuit whereby the above-described procedures can be operated automatically. In FIG. 7 R,S.T. stands for a threephase electric wire, NFBl and NFB2 for the no-fuse breakers, and M1 and M2 for an electric motor 2 for use in operating the press and an electric motor 69 for use in driving the chain feeding means 68, respectively. While FBI to PB9 stand for push buttons and LSl to LS 4 for the above-mentioned limit switches. LS1 opens while the chain is in the guiding groove 32 and closes when the chain gets out of it. LS2 possesses an a-contact LS2a and a b-contact LS2b, and LS2a closes when the dividing plate stop pawl moves forward to engage with the tooth 82 of the dividing plate 78, whereas LS2b closes when the same pawl withdraws to the position to disengage itself therefrom. LB3 is fixed to the supporting plate 4 below the clutch operation rod 8, and closes when the rod 8 is lowered (i.e. when the clutch is set) and opens when it is raised. LS4 has an a-contact LS4a and a b-contact LS4b, and LS4a closes when the ram 12 is in an elevated position, while LS4b closes when the same ram starts to descend.

ARO to AR22 stand for the relays, MCI and MC2 for the electromagnetic switches, and DRl and DR2 for the timer relays, each of which being for use in opening and closing the respective contact indicated by the corresponding small letters. Cl and C2 are the counters for use in countering the number of links in the chains to be produced and the number of the chains produced themselves, respectively, whereas ClR and C2R are the reset coils for the counters C1 and C2 each of which closes the contact C1a or C2a when the counter reaches the preset value. COS stands for a manualautomatic change-over switch, SOLl and SOL2 for the operation solenoids for the magnet valve which actuates the air cylinder 89 so that the dividing plate stop pawl 85 should be moved forward or backward, SOL3 and SOL4 for the operation solenoids for the magnet valve which actuates the air cylinder 6 so that the clutch operation rod 8 should be lowered or raised, and SOL5 for the operation solenoid for the magnet valve which actuates the air cylinder 62 so that the collector 60 should be moved forward. And T stands for a power transformer for the access switch 91 and the counters C1, C2, etc., Trl and Tr2 for the power transformers for the operation circuit, SRF for a full-wave rectificator, F 1 to F9 for the fuses, and PL for a pilot lump. All the above-described items but the limit switch are attached to a control board 99 provided on the side of the press.

Referring now to the operation of the opening circuit, it is assumed that FIG. 1 shows a state wherein the clutch of the press is disengaged, the ram 12 is at a standstill in the elevated position, and the chain is cut off at the press jig portion 50. In the following description, every component, contact, etc. will be expressed by the respective symbols, with the circuit numbers shown in the margin of the operation circuit also given in brackets subsequent to each symbol.

When ARO is energized by pushing P82, it will be self-retained by ar-(1) and, at the same time, ar0(5)(41) closes, and then MCI is energized to close me] and to start Ml. Then by switching COS on Automatic position, ARI becomes energized to close arl(2) and a voltage is applied to the operation circuit. And when the starting push button PB-5(3) for the automatic operation is pushed, AR2 is energized and selfretained by ar2(4) and, at the same time, ar2(9) closes the energize DR2, so dr2 closes to energize ARS after the predetermined time limit, ar5(43) closes to energize MCZ and M2 starts to feed the chain. The chain is fed by the sprocket 80 through the guiding means 24 to the discharging table 59, while the number of chain rollers which have passed the press jig portion 50 are counted by the counter C1 in terms of even numbers by doubling the number of pulses discharged from the access switch 92. When the number reaches the predetermined value, Cla(l2) closes to energize AR6 and is self-retained by ar6( 13) and, at the same time, ar6(28) closes to energize SOLI. Therefore, the air cylinder 89 causes the dividing plate stop pawl 85 to protrude to stop the dividing plate 78 as well as to close LS2a to energize AR7. By closing ar7(39) SOLS is energized and the air cylinder 62 is caused to move the collector 60 forward to fix the chain at a predetermined position. On the other hand, the closing of ar7(44) nergizes DRl and closes drl(l7) after a predetermined time limit of 1.5 to 2 seconds, thereby energizing AB8 to make itself self-retained by ar8(l7) and closing ar8(34) to energize SOL3, the air cylinder 6 is actuated to set the clutch 1 1. Therefore the ram 12 goes down, pushes out the connecting pin 104 of the chain with the punch 19 and then goes up again. When the clutch operation rod 8 is lowered by the above-mentioned operation of the air cylinder 6, LS3(18) is closed to energize AR9, thereby closing ar9(36) and operating SOL4 to disengage the clutch. Thus the ram 12 goes down only once and then returns to the elevated position where it remains still.

When the ram 12 starts to descend, LS4b(20) closes to energize AR10 and is self-retained by arl0(2l) and, at the same time, arl0(46) closes to reset the counter Cl. Then when the ram 12 goes up and LS4a(22) closes in the most elevated position, AR! 1 is energized since arl0(22) has already been closed, and ar11(31) closes to energize SOL2 to cause the stop pawl to withdraw. The energizing of ARll deenergizes AR7 by opening arll(8), so ar7(1l) closes to reenergizes DR2 to start M2 as described before. And with the withdrawal of the stop pawl 85, LS2b closes to energize AR12, which opens ar12(18)(20) and deenergizes AR9 and AR10, and therefore deenergizes ARll as well.

As ARI 1 is energized at every time the press ram 12 goes up and down, the counter C2 counts the number of chains produced by the closing of arl1(45). When the number of chains thus produced reaches the predetermined one, the contact C2-a of the counter C2 closes for a short period of time to energize AR17 to make itself self-retained by ar17(24) and, at the same time, to close arl7(30), thereby energizing SOLl to stop the rotation of the sprocket 80. Concurrently arl7 (5l)(52) closes to light an indicator lamp PLRZ or sound a buzzer BZ to notify the operator that the predetermined number of chains have been produced.

The machine can be stopped by pushing PB4(3), which energizes AR15 to make itself self-retained by arl5(23) and, at the same time, closes ar15(26) to energize SOL] to cause the dividing plate stop pawl to move forward, thereby stopping the rotation of the sprocket 80. As soon as PB4(3) is pushed AR2 is deenergized, so ar2(9) opens to deenergize ARS. Therefore ar5(43) opens to stop M2.

The machine can be re-started by pushing PB5(3), then AR3 is energized to close ar3(33), which energizes SOL2 to withdraw the stop pawl 85. And then M1 and M2 will be started after a series of the same procedure as described for the case of starting the machine.

As described before, this invention makes it possible to automatically obtain the chains each of which having a required number of links by cutting a long-length chain. And a large number of various kinds of chains can be produced accurately as well as promptly with little manpower since said number of links can be altered at will by presetting the number on the counter Cl. In addition, various kinds of chains can be produced by a single machine by only replacing the assembles comprising the chain guiding means 24 and the press jig 50 as well as the dividing plate 78 and the sprocket 80, and the punch 19 which are prepared in plural numbers for different kinds of chains. Also replacement procedure is very simple since said items can be replaced by installing and removing the bolt 34, bolt 79, etc. And, furthermore, the automatic chain cutting machine according to the present invention can conveniently make use of the press machine for general use.

The invention shall not be limited to the foregoing example but includes all the devices and apparatus to which the technological idea of this invention is applied.

I claim:

1. An automatic chain cutting machine, comprising:

chain guiding means for guiding a long-length chain to the working portion of a press machine;

chain feeding means including a sprocket which engages the chain within said chain guiding means to feed the chain, an indexing plate coaxially connected with said sprocket and having half as many teeth as the sprocket, means for generating a signal every time a tooth of said indexing plate rotatingly passes a selected point, and means for stopping said indexing plate when a predetermined number of said signals is reached;

driving means drivingly engaged with said sprocket for rotating same;

a press machine having a punch mounted on a ram and clutch means for moving said ram when said predetermined number of signals is reached;

a press jig portion having means for holding the portion of the chain at which it is separated at a predetermined working position when said predetersprocket and the indexing plate can be replaced according to the type of chain to be produced.

3. An automatic chain cutting machine according to claim 1, wherein said driving means includes torque limiting means drivingly connected between said sprocket and a power source and capable of slipping when said sprocket is stopped. 

1. An automatic chain cutting machine, comprising: chain guiding means for guiding a long-length chain to the working portion of a press machine; chain feeding means including a sprocket which engages the chain within said chain guiding means to feed the chain, an indexing plate coaxially connected with said sprocket and having half as many teeth as the sprocket, means for generating a signal every time a tooth of said indexing plate rotatingly passes a selected point, and means for stopping said indexing plate when a predetermined number of said signals is reached; driving means drivingly engaged with said sprocket for rotating same; a press machine having a punch mounted on a ram and clutch means for moving said ram when said predetermined number of signals is reached; a press jig portion having means for holding the portion of the chain at which it is separated at a predetermined working position when said predetermined number of signals is reached and for releasing said chain when the press punch has pushed out the connecting pins from said portion of said chain; and operating means for automatically operating all said means.
 2. An automatic chain cutting machine according to claim 1, wherein the assemblies comprising the chain guiding means and the press jig portion as well as the sprocket and the indexing plate can be replaced according to the type of chain to be produced.
 3. An automatic chain cutting machine according to claim 1, wherein said driving means includes torque limiting means drivingly connected between said sprocket and a power source and capable of slipping when said sprocket is stopped. 